Lighting a cigarette. Loading a gun.

I was 13 when I smoked my first cigarette. My friend had offered me her cigarettes many times, but I had no problem telling her I wasn’t interested. Then that day came along. Our home economics class had been released from the confines of a classroom in order to do some price checking at a nearby grocery store. None of my close friends were in this class, so I found myself walking to the store with a girl that I didn’t know well, but I enjoyed her company. She pulled out a cigarette and offered it to me, and I took it.

It was the first day of a fifteen year journey of quitting and starting over and over again. It was the first day of coughing and wheezing from inhaling toxic chemicals and smoke. There’s no doubt that smoking is bad for you, and I truly wish I had never started, but the problem is so much bigger than just the health of the smoker.

When I started smoking, there was no age limit on purchasing cigarettes. That came soon afterwards, but it didn’t stop me or my friends from buying them. On the rare occasion that the law was enforced, we would just move on to another store to buy them. It was far too easy. Those laws are enforced more these days, but that hasn’t stopped kids from getting their hands on cigarettes. In fact, it has created a much bigger problem. Today, 1 in 3 cigarettes purchased in Ontario are illegal. In other provinces the average is 1 in 10. Think about that for a moment….

33% of the cigarettes in Ontario are illegal.

This problem goes far beyond providing tobacco to children. Illegal cigarettes fund criminal activities like drug trafficking, gun trafficking and organized crime. The cigarettes that minors are smoking are putting guns in the hands of some of the most dangerous people in our country. The cigarettes that kids smoke are allowing criminals to produce an estimated profit of $75 million annually across Canada.

Today, more than ever, we are confronted with violence. We know what evil looks like. We need to teach our kids that purchasing illegal cigarettes plays a role in gun violence, in drug overdoses and in organized crime in Ontario. Their choices go far beyond themselves. It’s unfortunate that our children need to learn and understand these lessons from a younger age than we did, but it is the reality.

I was 28 when I smoked my last cigarette. I dream of the day that cigarettes are not so readily available to kids, so that no one else ever has to make their way through that starting and quitting journey. So how can we stop the spread of illegal tobacco? There are suggestions at www.stopillegaltobacco.ca that will guide you, and hopefully help us put an end to illegal cigarettes.

I really think it is a parent’s job to stop it, not the school’s. They definitely educate them about the dangers of smoking, because all of my kids learned at school, but it’s the parent’s job to step in and stop a smoking kid.

The stats are terrible, scary to think this “illegal”activity is so active in our own backyards. I never smoked and I am so glad of it. But it is sad to see how many young people are still engaging in it 🙁

Really great article. I never thought of it that way. And also I want to say a HUGE congratulations on quitting at 28. I can only imagine what a challenge that is for anybody to have to go through. I am grateful it didn’t happen to me… but it just as easily could have. And now for my children… we need to make changes !!!!

If Antismokers were actually concerned about kids getting hold of illegal cigarettes, or about people being shot in a blackmarket cigarette alleyway, or about blackmarket funding going to crime or terror, they’d simply stop it from happening.

How? Simple: tax cigarettes at about the same rate as alcohol instead of ten times the rate of alcohol. Blackmarket virtually disappears; the criminal violence associated with it disappears; the funding of organized crime and terror from the blackmarket disappears, and unlicensed illegal alleyway vendors who have no licenses or businesses to lose when they sell to 12 year olds disappears as well.

Will the Antismokers back such a solution? Of course not. They’d end up losing 90% of their funding and have to go get honest jobs if the taxes were fair. They’d rather let the kids die.

– MJM

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Sheri McDonald is an adventurous lifestyle blogger who has been partnering with brands and sharing her stories since 2010. A mother to four children who are growing far too quickly, Sheri shares her travels, recipes and lifestyle advice on Kidsumers.ca and Familyenroute.com.